Summer CleanTox Tip- #11 - Taste the Rainbow
Instead of highlighting one food this week I thought I would give you on of my favorite food tips... EAT THE RAINBOW!
Would you believe, you can get all of the things your body needs by eating a colorful variety of fruits and vegetables. Nature has a clever way to highlight nutrients in foods: different nutrients actually impart different colors to the foods they’re in.
Now let’s break it down with some facts and recipes of course!
Red foods, such as tomatoes and watermelon, contain lycopene, a phytochemical that may help protect against prostate and breast cancers.
Alpha and beta carotene make foods like carrots and sweet potatoes orange. The body converts these compounds into the active form of vitamin A, which helps keep your eyes, bones and immune system healthy. These phytochemicals also operate as antioxidants, sweeping up disease-promotingfreeradicals.
Many yellow and green vegetables are good sources of lutein and zeaxanthin, phytochemicals that accumulate in the eyes and help prevent age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in older people. Leafy greens are also rich in betacarotene.
Green vegetables such as broccoli and kale, provide compounds called indoles and isothiocyanates, which may help prevent cancer by amping up the production of enzymes that clear toxins from the body.
Blue, purple and deep-red fruits and vegetables are full of anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins, antioxidant associated with keeping the heart healthy and the brain functioning optimally.
Now take a look at your lunch and tell me, how many colors are you representing at this meal?
xo,
Lauren Courtney